Google Removes 3 Advanced Search Options

Another option that has been removed is page previews, which displayed a longer snippet and a thumbnail for each search result. This feature has been replaced by Instant Preview, but you can no longer see all the thumbnails next to the search results.

When Google launched the sidebar, back in May 2009, it was the first time when powerful features like restricting the results to recent pages didn't require to visit the advanced search page. "We think of the Search Options panel as a tool belt that gives you new ways to interact with Google Search, and we plan to fill it with more innovative and useful features in the future."

Google has become really crapped up with content farms lately. "Fewer shopping sites" really helped clean things up. Not any more. With its usefulness dropping, Google is clearly searching for the right balance between signal and noise. Unfortunately for users, noise == money.

It is very difficult to search for INFORMATION about a product, when the vast majority of hits one always gets is retail websites. The "fewer / more shopping websites" filter was one of the most useful things I have seen on Google in years. Google is not run by idiots -- they probably know how useful this feature was, but they pulled the feature anyway. Companies will often make choices that benefit themselves at the expense of their user base... maybe Google is really that different. If another search system offers this feature along with some privacy, I will be using Google less and less. No good thing lasts forever!

If I am looking for something to buy I don't want to see anything other than sites offering a product for sale, but if I am looking for info only, I absolutely abhor seeing all these hustlers online trying to lure me to their website to sell me something. For that reason, if ever a good search engine comes up that offers these features, I will immediately say Adios! to Google!

Right, if Google has a "Shopping" category like "Images" and "Videos", then shopping results could be restricted to that category and kept minimal on the default search page. That would enormously speed up searches for information rather than ways to empty your wallet.